Feature
Virtual tradeshows and conferences: be in the know By the time Kimberly Charters, Coordinator of Convention Exhibits, closed the doors on the 88th Prospectors & Developers Association Convention, 23,144 delegates had tramped their way around the Toronto Convention Centre, networking, checking out equipment, and wheeling and dealing. Little did Kimberly know that the world of tradeshows and conferences was about to pivot. Sixteen days later, on March 17, the Government of Ontario declared a state of emergency and the province was shuttered. COVID-19 had arrived. A pandemic declared. The world and Canada ordered its citizens to shelter in place. Tradeshows and conferences were cancelled immediately and indefinitely. The 2020 PDAC Convention is probably the last totally face-to-face convention come tradeshow to happen in Canada for the foreseeable future. The business of tradeshows appears to have ended, at least for the time being.
The business of tradeshows Tradeshows are multi-million dollar events that bring together under one-roof manufacturers, buyers and intermediaries for mutually beneficial financial gain, networking and education. They are the bread-and butter revenue engine for trade associations, hotels, restaurants, municipal commerce and industry supply chains. For associations, tradeshow revenues keep membership fees reasonable and offset costs by providing member benefits such as professional development and networking. They provide opportunities for media coverage and the opportunity to recognize industry leaders.
the COVID pivot will remain for the foreseeable future.
COVID Pivot Disruptor Two - you don't just show up
The COVID pivot - disruptors
Manoeuvring through a video conferencing platform requires a new set of skills, knowledge and awareness. When one shows up unprepared, event time is squandered away by downloading, installing and testing the application, checking compatibility and troubleshooting. Deciding how to turn off one’s video and mute one’s microphone can take even more valuable time.
The COVID pivot forced many manufacturers to shift production to personal protective equipment and its ancillary products. Physicians moved to virtual care, restaurants shifted to curb side pick-up, and tradeshow and conference business went virtual. Zoom, Teams, GoToMeeting and WebEx, and other digital platforms, saw an exponential spike in their usage. With free admission and easy registration conference goers quickly found their calendars chock-a-block with webinars. Time strapped, even skipping events didn’t make a difference. Within hours inboxes became clogged with links to missed sessions ready to be clicked on and viewed at a later date. COVID Pivot Disruptor One – time cannot be inventoried If one can’t spare the time to view a conference session when scheduled, the likelihood of viewing it in the future is slim to zero. That’s the law of diminishing marginal returns. An executive’s fixed resource is time. If one keeps adding more sessions (a variable resource) into the fixed resource, there comes a point when the gain of attending one more session produces no or very little return in knowledge acquisition. Time is a fixed resource. It can’t be created, destroyed or placed in inventory. It’s instantaneously perishable.
Take the opportunity to test the streaming system beforehand. Otherwise, you may end up unable to join the presentation – a very frustrating experience. COVID Pivot Disruptor Three – how deep is the footprint A footprint consists of a collection of unobtrusive measures that can be aggregated and analyzed to provide useful intelligence on buying behaviour – digital marketing, Even before COVID-19, attending a shoes-on-the ground event left a footprint. At registration personal data were collected. During the event covert observations and data collection such as tracking the use of one’s mobile devices to access vendor promotions and information, deepened one’s footprint. At a virtual conference with each click of the mouse data are collected and stored behind the conference’s backroom door. Aggregated this information provides insight into buyer’s behaviour and how sellers can better serve their client needs. That’s digital marketing.
Judy Healey, an instructor at Ryerson University’s Department of Hospitality and Tourism, describes tradeshows as tactile. It’s about the excitement, the buzz and the hype on the tradeshow floor. As long as the COVID situation remains fluid and unstable it’s a sure bet that
18 | September 2020 | GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE
graphicartsmag.com
